laid upon the Table—

moved, as an unopposed motion—

He said: It is not necessary for me to say much in commendation of this motion which I am sure will meet with the approval of all sides of the House. You, Sir, have had the honour and dignity and privilege of presiding over this Assembly for the last nine years, during a most eventful period of our history, and much of the success of our work has been due to the impartiality with which you have discharged your duties and to the way in which hon. members on all sides of the House have submitted to your ruling. Parliament is a great institution in this country, it is a great institution in this country more than in any other. We are a conservative people; we believe in the established order of things; we believe in authority and in discipline, and all these ideas which are rooted in our past find expression in this great institution of Parliament, and especially in this House which represents the people of this country. But I am sure, Sir, that without a Speaker whose authority is accepted, whose impartiality is accepted without question, whose rulings are accepted in this House, it will be impossible to have a proper Parliament, to have a proper House of Assembly, and the danger would be that the proceedings of this House would soon degenerate into disorderliness. On the contrary, of all the public assemblies in the world I have seen in my time, there is not a single one which compares to this House for its decorum, for the order in which things are done, for the proper respect, the chivalrous respect which is paid by members to each other in the course of debate, and not a single body have I come across in my experience where a higher dignity of debate is followed than in this House. It is usually due to the feeling, to the implicit feeling on all sides of the House that the authority of the Chair should be maintained, and although it usually happens that a party man is put in charge of the Speaker’s Chair, as soon as he comes there his party position is in abeyance and he maintains the authority of Parliament and tries his best to maintain the highest traditions of his position and office. We have had many Speakers of this House, and I have served under a good number in my own life time, and I do not remember any whose rulings in this House have been so unquestioned as yours. You have, I think I may say so without any hesitation, discharged the high duties of your office with honour, dignity and impartiality, and in giving expression to our feelings here I think I am voicing the conviction and the gratitude and appreciation of every member in this House. I have the honour to move, Sir.

Mr. Speaker, dis my werkelik ’n groot plesier om die mosie voorgestel deur die edelagbare die Eerste Minister te sekondeer. Ek sê, dat dit vir my ’n groot plesier is, en ek gee u en die Huis die versekering, dat dit so is. Vir iemand wat toevallig van tyd tot tyd hier in die Huis het ingekom en wat gebeurtenisse bygewoon het, wat ’n sterk woordewisseling veroorsaak het, wat eventueel u reeling ten gevolge gehad het, en wat miskien van tyd tot tyd betwis is, mag dit die indruk het as of wat die edelagbare die Eerste Minister gesê het nie so was nie; maar tog voel ek heeltemaal met die edelagbare die Eerste Minister dat dit wel so was. Want die vuur wat aan die dag gelê word by sulk geleenhede is nie ’n gebrek aan respek vir die manier waarop die Huis bestuur word deur Mr. Speaker, en is ook nie ’n bewys van verset nie teen Mr. Speaker, maar is meer ’n bewys dat ons nie heeltemaal tevrede is met iets wat daar gedoen is, terwyl ons tog die grootste hulp aan Mr. Speaker wens te gee. Wat elkeen in hierdie Huis voel is dat hoe opgewonde ons ook mag wees, en hoe ontevrede ons ook mag wees met mekaar, of selfs met ’n reëling deur Mr. Speaker gegee, ons tog by die gesag, by die parlementêre gesag moet staan, en nog u Mr. Speaker, nog ons sou daar ooit aan dink om te ver te gaan. En dit is wat elk van ons altyd hier in die Huis gevoel het, wat betref Mr. Speaker. Ek kan u die versekering gee, dat ek namens myself en namens my vrinde hier agter my spreek, wanneer ek sê, dat hoeseer ons miskien ook soms mag verskil van u, en alhoewel ons miskien soms ook geïnfluenseer mag wees deur die gevoelens van die oomblik, in die grond van die saak het ons tog steeds gevoel, dat ons niks beters kan doen nie vir die toekoms van die land en vir Parlement self as die voorbeeld deur u geset te volg om die gesag en die waardigheid van die Parlement hoog te hou. Ek wens hartelik te ondersteun wat hier deur die edelagbare die Eerste Minister gesê is en ek kan net alleen die hoop uitspreek, dat wat betref die toekoms van die Parlement, dat die geskiedenis van die Parlement wat ons agter ons het en die gesag van die Speaker en die invloed wat hy uitgeoefen het oor die Parlement, ons hoër en hoër sal lei en ons hoop, dat die waardigheid van die Parlement voorgeset sal word op die fondamente wat deur u as Speaker van hierdie Huis gelê is.

The resolution before the House is a new departure for the Union Parliament. I think under the circumstances it is not only a good departure, but on behalf of my colleagues and myself, I say it is a departure which is more than justified. We, Sir, although a minority in this House, have time and again looked to you for protection and I think without exception you have gone out of your way to safeguard and protect the interests, the rights and the privileges of the minority. I do not think any higher praise could be bestowed upon the Speaker of this or any other Parliament than that it should be said that for those in the minority he held the balance impartially and did his duty to the extent of giving the most humble member exactly the same opportunity and privilege as he gave to those who occupied the higher positions. In the House of Commons it is the practice, although parties come into power and go, for the Speaker to remain, the House having satisfied itself that the Speaker can rise above party politics and can conduct the business of this or that House in such an able manner, and in such a dignified and impartial manner, as you have done. In the House of Commons it is the practice to retain the services of the Speaker, and I think it is a practice which might well be considered in the Parliament of South Africa. We associate ourselves most heartily with the resolution, not merely formally, because we feel time and again you have solved the difficulties that have confronted you. The collar may have chafed at times, but on all occasions we have had this feeling, that you were acting in the best interests of this House and doing your best to deal with the difficult position. We can overlook the small things and look at the big things, and taking it right through I may say as far as we are concerned on these benches that you have, in the words of the resolution, presided over the proceedings of this House with dignity, ability and impartiality. You have won our admiration, our respect and our esteem, and we associate ourselves most heartily with the motion.

I rise with a deep sense of the importance of such an occasion to thank my hon. colleagues for the very generous manner in which they have received this motion. I agree that since the year 1915, when I was called to this high office, to the present time, our country has passed through a most strenuous and important part of its history, which was naturally often reflected in this House in an accentuated form, and this made the Speaker’s position at times very exacting and difficult. Looking back to-day upon those difficult years, if I have had any success in the discharge of my onerous duties, I ascribe it to the fact that I have conscientiously endeavoured to be the representative and guide of the whole House, and not to be either the leader or servant of a party, and I may also at the same time say that it would have been impossible for me to have conducted the proceedings with anything like honour to myself or satisfaction to hon. members unless my colleagues generally had been animated by a desire to support the dignity of the Chair and the due decorum of the deliberations of the House. These two factors greatly helped to maintain the great traditions of this office. We are now on the eve of a dissolution and, as Speaker, I wish every member a happy and successful future. Perhaps I may, in this connection, be allowed to make one personal allusion, and that is to the right, hon. member for Stellenbosch (Mr. Merriman) who, owing to feeble health, will in all probability not seek re-election. I wish him all happiness in his retirement. He will have this solace, that he has established in our country a high standard of Parliamentary tradition which will be an inspiration to generations in the future. In conclusion, I should like to say that I am very much indebted to the officers of the House, from the Clerk downwards, for the able manner in which they have supported me in my arduous duties. Their loyalty to individual members and ability in the discharge of their several important functions have proved that they will be a credit in the service of any important legislature.

Het is met een vol besef van de belangrijkheid van deze gelegenheid dat ik opsta om mijn edelachtbare mede-Volksraadsleden te bedanken voor de zeer vriendelike wijze waarop zij dit voorstel ontvangen hebben. Ik stem met u in dat sedert het jaar 1915, toen ik tot dit hoge ambt geroepen werd, ons land tot heden toe een uiterst moeilik en gewichtig deel van zijn geschiedenis doorgemaakt heeft en dat dit natuurlik dikwels in dit Huis op scherpe wijze weerkaatst werd waardoor dan ook de positie van de Speaker bij tijden veel van hem vergde en zeer moeilik was. Wanneer ik vandaag aan deze moeilike jaren denk, gevoel ik dat indien ik enig sukses had bij het verrichten van mijn moeitevolle plichten dit te danken is aan het feit dat ik eerlik getracht heb de vertegenwoordiger en leidsman van het gehele Huis te zijn en niet de leider of dienstknecht van een partij. Terzelfdertijd wens ik te zeggen dat het onmogelik voor mij geweest zou zijn de verrichtingen met de minste eer voor mijzelf en ten genoegen van edelachtbare leden te leiden tenzij mijn mede-Volksraadsleden over het algemeen bezield waren met de begeerte om de waardigheid van de Stoel te steunen alsmede het decorum bij de werkzaamheden van het Huis te bewaren. Deze twee faktoren hebben groteliks bijgedragen om de voorname tradities van dit ambt in stand te houden. We zijn tans aan de vooravond van een ontbinding en als Speaker wens ik ieder lid een gelukkige en suksesvolle toekomst. Laat mij toe in dit verband een enkele persoonlike zinspeling te doen en wel ten aanzien van het hoogedelachtbare lid voor Stellenbosch (de hr. Merriman), die wegens zwakke gezondheid zich naar alle waarschijnlikheid niet herkiesbaar zal stellen. Ik wens hem alle geluk toe waar hij zich nu aan het publieke leven onttrekt. Het zal hem tot troost zijn dat hij in ons land een hoge standaard van Parlementair leven tot stand gebracht heeft, die latere geslachten bezielen zal. Ten slotte wens ik te zeggen dat ik veel verschuldigd ben aan de ambtenaren van het Huis—de Klerk en degenen onder hem—voor de bekwame wijze waarop zij mij geholpen hebben in mijn moeitevolle plichten. Hun loyaliteit aan afzonderlike leden en de bekwaamheid waarmee zij hun onderscheiden gewichtige plichten vervuld hebben bewijzen dat zij de dienst van enige belangrijke wetgevende macht eer zullen aandoen.

Business suspended at 2.55 p.m. and resumed at 4.30 p.m.

moved, as an unopposed motion—

seconded.

Agreed to.

Amendment in Clause 10 (Dutch version) put and agreed to.

Business suspended at 4.40 p.m. and resumed at 4.50 p.m.

The remaining formal business having been disposed of,

moved—

He said: There remains one duty and that is to move the adjournment of this House preparatory to its prorogation to-morrow. The Proclamation of prorogation will be issued in the ordinary course to-morrow. Let me say before we adjourn and depart from here that I wish all hon. members—

Many happy returns.

As happy a time as we can have under the many difficult circumstances that lie before us. I cannot wish all of us a safe return, that would be going too far, but I hope that in the strenuous time before us we shall bear in mind that we are busy, not only in our personal affairs, but in the great affairs of this country, which means so much to the future of public welfare. I do not think it is necessary to say anything else.

seconded.

Motion put and agreed to.